Allied Irish Bank has launched a £50 million fund in Scotland aimed at owner managed businesses.

The owner managed business fund aims to provide medium or long term capital finance.

The bank has launched two similar sized funds aimed at owner managed businesses in the Midlands and the north of England which form part of an overall £250 million Regional Owner Managed Business fund.

Gerard O’Keeff, head of GB business at the bank, said: “Many business lending initiatives are failing to connect in the UK because banks are not taking into account the diversity of the so called SME sector.

“We deliberately made this a targeted programme because we know owner managed businesses especially well, and as the engine of the economy, we want to make it as easy as possible for them to access capital and expand their businesses.

“Both the British and Irish governments have launched schemes to provide access to finance for businesses and as a specialist business bank in Britain, we are eager to play our part in that”.

Allied Irish Bank regional director, Dominick O’Grady, added: “Our loan book is fully funded by customer deposits and we are very pleased that we can use this to support more owner managed businesses and professional practices in Scotland by lending to help them grow.

“We’re seeing an uplift in demand from companies who seem increasingly confident about the outlook for growth.

“While it may be too early to say the tide has turned, we’re experiencing a steady rise in enquiries for financing support across many local business sectors including healthcare, leisure, professional services and manufacturing.”